More about how Stevie's Artisans started

I work with such unique artists. I found my Bronx-based artists through the Bronx Council on the Arts. In 2007 I was hired to manage and buy for the Bronx Museum gift shop on a budget that was miniscule by any standards. I seem to remember I was told to start with $5000 for the first year and maybe it would increase going forward. I bought some graffiti books because the Bronx is the birthplace of Hip Hop and graffiti and the Bronx Museum is a museum of contemporary art. That was a no-brainer. I added feminist art books for a feminist art show - essentially trying to build a stock of books that complimented the exhibitions.



Then I turned to the Artisans' Initiative of the Bronx Council on the Arts to obtain gift items for the shop. I met several artists at a monthly craft fair at Hostos College and invited them to place their work at the museum shop on a consignment basis. For other gift items, I reached out to four women graffiti artists who had installed a mural for a feminist exhibition at the museum. They turned me on to women graffiti artists in Japan, Germany and Toronto and I began to carry their work (bags, t-shirts, sticker art, posters, etc.) at the museum shop.



I never intended that the Bronx Museum gift shop would excusively carry Bronx artists and soon the shop included artisans from all over NYC. All the work at the museum shop was diverse and eclectic and that diversity continues in the Stevie's Artisans collection which I started this past October when I left the museum and its shop closed. My one rule of thumb in creating the collection was not to have any of the artists competing with each other. The three jewelry designers I carry work in entirely different mediums and create pieces uniquely their own. However, collaborative efforts are now beginning among Stevie's Artisans: a painter is working with a jewelry maker and a fashion designer is advising a soft sculpture pillow maker. This is good. Thus far the painter/silversmith collaboration has yielded earrings that are mini abstract paintings with sculptural elements - truly wearable art.